"Do most Australians need (as opposed to want) and are prepared to pay for the real cost of a "super highway" to their door or would a "super highway" to a node(s) in the street or area be sufficient ?"
At present most individual Australians can make do without FTTH. But most will need it by 2020. (Sorry, I can't remember where I read that.) Having worked in the IT Industry, I know most businesses (especially the ones with branches in different locations) urgently need it. (I think that is why there is a shift to more positive in the Coalition's rhetoric toward the NBN.)
FTTN will not be sufficient because:
1/ it will cost almost as much as FTTH but with much worse quality; 2/ it delivers very low upload speeds; 3/ its performance levels are not uniform - the further it is from the node the worse it performs; 4/ it is already out of date.
For a detailed and well informed reasoning why FTTH is superior to FTTN in terms of cost and quality, please read:
